She had curves that made his mouth water and legs that went on for days. Their boards gently bumped as he slid an arm low around her hips and leaned in to kiss her.

She put a hand on his chest, and with their mouths an inch apart, gave him a long look. “You don’t look like you’re about to talk.”

“Caught,” he said. “Is there something you wanted to talk about?”

“Well…you never said what brought you to the inn today.”

He didn’t really want to go there. He’d had a shit day, and his first instinct had been to be with Sophie.

“Talk,” she said in an imitation of a guy’s voice, which he assumed was supposed to be mimicking his own. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Spending time with Hud and the others again had been pretty great but also hard. Back when he’d been a stupid punk kid, he done his damnedest to keep his distance from Gray and Aidan, but they’d gotten past his walls more than he’d thought, something he hadn’t realized until he’d left.

Being back had those walls crumbling with shocking alacrity.

But not with Hud. They’d worked together all week and yet it was still…strained. So after a long day it had felt natural to hunt up Soph, because nothing was strained with her except for his zipper.

Exerting pressure on the hand she had on his chest, he leaned in past her barrier and nuzzled the sweet spot he knew was just beneath her jaw.

She sucked in a breath and…tilted her head, giving him better access. “You’re trying to distract me,” she murmured.

“Is it working?”

“Are you kidding? You’re a walking distraction,” she said. “What is it, Jacob? Your mom? Hud?”

He must have given himself away, because she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, her wet and nearly nude body a welcome distraction.

“It’ll get easier with him. It will,” she said softly. “Just don’t give up.”

He shook his head. He wouldn’t.

“Is that what brought you to my work?”

“Actually,” he said with a smile at the memory, “it was your text.”

“The one where I said I was busy with my client?”

“Ah,” he said with a smile. “So that’s what you meant.”

She blinked in confusion.

“You had a typo,” he said. “You left out the ‘e’ and ‘n’ in client.”

Her brow furrowed as she worked that out in her head. He was already flat-out grinning when she gasped in horror.

“Oh, my God!” she cried. “I didn’t!”

“Yep. You did. You said you were very busy with your clit. I had to come see that.”

“Oh, my God,” she said again, on a groan this time, and tried to push free of him. “Let go so I can sink into the water and die.”

“Hey, if I were a chick, I’d be very busy with my clit too. I’d be busy twenty-four seven.”

“Spoken like a guy.” Her cheeks were red, her green eyes wide. “I can’t believe my phone changed ‘client’ to…”

“Come on, make my day and say it,” he teased.

She covered her face. “Bite me.”

“I’d love to,” he said. “Right on your client, minus the ‘e’ and ‘n.’”

One hand still over her face, she used her other to point at him. “You, I could do without right now.”

He burst out laughing. She dropped her hands from her face and stared at him.

He couldn’t help it. People had come and gone in his life. He’d come and gone as well. But this time, with this woman, he didn’t want to let go.

And yet she did. Well, so she said. And he knew she wanted to believe it. But he also knew she wasn’t being honest with herself, because her eyes, mirrors to her heart and soul, gave her away. It was in every look she sent his way, in every sweet laugh, every sexy moan when he kissed her, in every slow, delicious writhe of her hot body when she wrapped it around his.

But that didn’t matter if she didn’t want to want him.

And he was going to be good with that. He’d promised her, and he didn’t break promises. But he was one hundred percent going to have to pull back to keep it.

When the last of the sun dipped behind the mountains, the temp began to drop. “Come on,” he said, “let’s get you back.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re cold and wet, and we both know I prefer you hot and wet.”